Phil Luciano: Hard to believe song sparked gang fight

Wednesday

Sep 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMSep 30, 2009 at 3:09 PM

Let's get this straight: A party at an apartment complex for Illinois Central College students explodes into chaos that includes upward of 400 people, seven police agencies, multiple accounts of gunplay, unconfirmed reports of gunshot wounds, four bullet-damaged vehicles, two injured cops, four hospitalizations, three arrests ... and all of it triggered by a rap song? Seriously?

Phil Luciano

Let's get this straight:

A party at an apartment complex for Illinois Central College students explodes into chaos that includes upward of 400 people, seven police agencies, multiple accounts of gunplay, unconfirmed reports of gunshot wounds, four bullet-damaged vehicles, two injured cops, four hospitalizations, three arrests ...

... and all of it triggered by a rap song?

Seriously?

Investigators have their hands full in trying to sort out the pieces of this messy puzzle. Of those mysterious details: What song prompted this melee?

Maybe that sounds trivial. However, East Peoria police and ICC administrators vow to never let this sort of insanity break out again. Part of that process involves identifying all incendiary factors. And that includes the flash point: a simple, stupid song.

Until then, peace pretty much prevailed at WoodView Commons, an on-campus complex. A female tenant there complied with all rules regarding the renting of a clubhouse there, including the registration of guests. The maximum capacity is about 75, but word of the party shot out via texts, and soon throngs of people - including high schoolers - started arriving.

The burgeoning crowd included members of two Peoria gangs. Apparently, they were surprised to find one another at the event, ICC President John Erwin said after consulting with police.

"Never before had the Hilltop Boyz and the Southsiders been together at the same time. They'd never been face-to-face," Erwin says. "They hate each other."

As they milled about, an argument between a couple of guests in the clubhouse moved outside. As they shouted, the crowd became agitated, Erwin said. The gang rivals started yipping at each other.

Meanwhile, the DJ kept playing music. Neither the DJ nor the host - neither has been identified by police or ICC - is connected to the gangs, Erwin says.

The DJ then played a song that somehow insulted one of the gangs. At that, they began to fight, sparking further tumult throughout the crowd.

Erwin is shocked that a song served as the tipping point of violence.

"It's definitely a different reason for why they went at it," he says.

Erwin says the DJ did not purposefully act as an instigator in his choice of music.

"It was just coincidental," Erwin says. "This DJ could not have known that (song) was the match to light the kindling."

Investigators are determined to identify the song, says East Peoria Deputy Police Chief Chris Hutt. He has no idea why a gang would get worked up about a certain song

"Gangs are strange," Hutt says with a sigh. " ... They will get carried away over a baseball cap - why someone is wearing a particular baseball cap.

"It's childish, in my opinion. But that's what our society has come to."

Otherwise, he says he knows of no other reason for the gangs' animosity, such as a turf discrepancy.

"Gangs are territorial," Hutt says. "Obviously, since they're from Peoria, they're not on their territory in East Peoria. They just happened to show up in the same place, and it didn't take long for things to go wrong."

ICC's Erwin thinks one or both of the gangs will seek revenge.

"You can't control that," Erwin says. "It'll happen again. But not at ICC."

He says the school will be looking for signs - such as colors or apparel - that indicate gang affiliation.

"Do we have a lot of that? I don't think so," Erwin says.

Still, both Erwin and East Peoria police plan to avoid a riotous repeat. The school will review its party-hosting plans.

For instance, at WoodView, the complex manager was out of town, and the assistant manager was home sick. That left party craziness in the hands of only the resident assistant. A complex needs a better contingency plan, Erwin says.

Meanwhile, he and police want witnesses to help. Three Peoria men have been arrested on charges of mob action and aggravated battery, but have said nothing. Others at the party have offered little.